People, places, and events that shaped Mississippi history

Abd ar-Rahman Ibrahima

Abd ar-Rahman Ibrahima was a Fulbe Fulani prince from Timbo, the capital of Futa Jallon, a region in what is today the Republic of Guinea in West Africa. He was very well educated, having studied at the university in Timbuktu. He was captured and sold to transatlantic slave traders in 1788. Forced into bondage, he was brought to Natchez and made a manager of other enslaved people on a plantation. He was a devout Muslim, and a letter he wrote in Arabic made its way to the sultan of Morocco. Befriended by several influential people, including Henry Clay, a United States senator from Kentucky, he bought his own freedom after 40 years of slavery. Once free, he tried unsuccessfully to raise the money to liberate his nine children. Ibrahima and his wife returned to Africa and lived in Liberia for a short time before he died.